5th April 10.30 am: Community Action and Support group stall at Cobblers Last statue Abington St to advertise their activities and opposition against Bedroom Tax and work advice sessions. Anyone else interested is welcome to come along with material/placards etc opposed to the Bedroom Tax – but not paper sellers. Leaflets: Rights At Work, Bedroom Tax

Sunday 13th April Rd Rope Walk Holdenby : Moderate 5-6 mile walk from Holdenby with fine views. King Charles1 was held prisoner at Holdenby House at the end of the English Civil War in some luxury and with 400 servants! If you are interested in joining these walks or want to know more ring 01604 702632 or go to http://northampton-redrope-walking-group.org.uk

Monday 14th April: Northampton Trades Council meeting. Details tbc.

Saturday 26th April a free Multicultural Festival will take over the Market Square in Northampton. A one day celebration of all the different cultures that make Northampton such a vibrant town. There will be live music, performance, dancing and singing and a wide range of food and craft stalls. The action then shifts to the Deco Theatre for an evening of music, fashion and performance in aid of the Mayor’s Charity the Sharing

and Caring Trust. Tickets are only £10 and that includes a free buffet. Tickets are available from me here at NVC or by contacting Zimwomen at zimwomennorthampton@ymail.com

Monday 28 April Reclaim Our NHS at 7pm at the Old Black Lion. Anyone who wishes to read a short report of the last meeting, who hasn’t seen it yet, please contact Ron Mendel who can forward it.

Monday 31st March 2014 5.30pm to 7.30pm The Better Care Fund Workshop. Kettering Conference Centre Thurston Drive, Kettering NN15 6PB. An opportunity to find out about the Better Care Fund and what it means to the people of Northamptonshire. The speaker will be

Jo Apea – Health Partnerships Programme Leader at Northamptonshire County Council. Come along and have your say. If you would like to attend please contact:- Healthwatch Northamptonshire On 01604 893636 and enquiries@healthwatchnorthamptonshire.co

Hi, still a lot going on. Please get involved and let me know of any events – preferably a few days ahead. I have various other bits of info from the TUC and other bodies to put up, so will try to do that during the week.

Events

Tues 1st Oct: Teachers’ Action across various areas of the country including Northamptonshire. From the NUT: ‘The strike rally is at the Park Inn Radisson Hotel, Silver St, Northampton – from 12 noon to 1.30pm. Please try to attend, and bring your work colleagues. NUT and NAS/UWT members will be standing up for education by striking. If we don’t stand together, Gove will be more confident to scrap PPA time, scrap ‘rarely cover’ and scrap statutory safeguards on how long we work each day. This is on top of worsening pensions and pay –

in return for increasing stress at work. We owe it to the children we teach, and to our colleagues at work – to collectively stand together to defend education – that means striking on Tuesday 1st October.’

Reports on Events – please share

NCC demo

On Thursday 26th September NCC Unison held a demonstration in front of County Hall prior to the Full Council Meeting. There was a reasonable turnout at the demo, and comrades were in good spirits with the chanting.

There was also a motion tabled at the Full Council to reverse the changes to terms and conditions. Unsurprisingly the motion was lost with the majority of the Tories voting against, but interestingly a few of the Tories abstained! Comrades can watch the web cast to see the points made (at 03.25 hours into the webcast)…http://www.northamptonshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/105154. You may also wish to view the motions and discussions about zero hours contracts (which Colin Bircher spoke on) and Royal Mail privatisation (which CWU activists spoke on) – again, disappointingly, these motions were lost.

Middleton who has sent a compilation video of images. If anyone has any photos of the Northants contingent, please send them to me and I’ll try and get some up too. Btw don’t click on the ad bar saying Download or Play Now – just get rid of it and play the photovideo as usual. Please share and like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rSMiMhxIJk